


wherever we're opened, we're red

by murdershewrote



Category: Preacher (Comics), Preacher (TV)
Genre: Angst, Female Character of Color, Multi, Near Death Experiences, Polyamory, Vampire Turning, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-21 14:31:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7390978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/murdershewrote/pseuds/murdershewrote
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tulip has no intention of dying. Cass takes some convincing as to the method of her survival.</p>
            </blockquote>





	wherever we're opened, we're red

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd. Warnings for bad language, description of wounds, and blood.
> 
> Title from Clive Barker, “Everybody is a book of blood; wherever we’re opened, we’re red.”

It feels like it’s been days, but time has been slipping through her fingers like her blood so Tulip doesn’t know. But Cass is still here and she is still bleeding so it can’t have been that long. 

Gutshot is a nasty way to die. Slow and painful as sepsis sets in and you start rotting from the inside out. In the beginning Tulip had tried to give Cass a message for Jesse, but he’d called her a dumbass for thinking Jesse didn’t already know whatever sappy thing she wanted to tell him. Then the pain set in and she was begging to die but Cass denied her that as well, kept putting pressure on the wound and telling her if she died Jesse would kill him and Cass was planning on living at least another century. That gives Tulip another idea, and Cass objects to this one even more than the last. 

“No, no, nonononono. If Jesse would kill me for letting you die, what the hell do you think he’d do to me if I turned you into a bloodsucking monster?”

Tulip makes a noise of protest and Cass talks over her. “Multiple angels have informed me I am going to hell just for being a vampire. God Himself personally called me an abomination. If you die at least Jesse will get to see you in Heaven.”

Tulip wants to tell him that self-deprecating doesn’t suit him. Wants to tell him she’s already going to hell. Wants to tell him that she’s already died once and she’s fucking terrified of it happening again, that she’s still not sure that she believes in an afterlife, that she wants to live goddammit and if she has to drink blood to do it then that is more than a fair trade.

“-and you can’t tan, and religious fuckers try to kill you, and drugs and alcohol don’t have as much of an effect, and everyone around you dies, and everything still _hurts_ and you can’t even look forward to the escape of death when someone locks you in an incinerator, and politicians are still fucking liars and-”

Cass is still listing all the downsides to being a vampire and Tulip is distantly aware that this is more than he’s ever talked about himself ever, and isn’t it funny how imminent death makes people more open. But she is running out of time and this is her decision to make and she won’t let him make it for her.

“Cass, _I don’t want to die_.”

That shuts Cass up at least and he finally looks her in the eye instead of focusing on her stomach or checking his phone. 

“I can’t!” Finally bursts from Cassidy’s mouth. “I don’t know how! I was walking along and something jumps out of a river and drags me down by the neck and next thing I know I’m burning in the sun! I’ve never tried to turn anyone before, I’d just rip out your throat.”

“I trust you.”

Cass looks like he’s the one who’s been gutted. Still, he lets go of her wound and starts moving, cursing her all the while. When Tulip recovers from her headrush she finds herself more or less upright, leaning against Cass’s chest between his sprawled legs. Surprisingly gently, Cass is pulling her hair away from where sweat and blood had kept it glued to her neck. 

They sit there for a moment, listening to her slowing pulse. This is far too much to ask of Cass and she knows it but Tulip is selfish and terrified and if she survives she’ll make it up to him. If she survives, they are going to have to have a lot of serious conversations, about vampires and boundaries and relationships and Jesse and the three of them together. 

If she survives. 

There are a lot of things Tulip would like to say, like _this isn’t your fault_ , and _don’t let Jesse drink himself to death_ , and _don’t kill yourself either_ , and _I love you_ , but she doesn’t have the strength.

“Do it.”

There is pain in her neck and Tulip closes her eyes. 

 

(When she opens them next it is to Cassidy’s grinning face. 

“Welcome to eternity, Tulip O’Hare.”)

**Author's Note:**

> Because Tulip would make a magnificent vampire. This was originally supposed to be the prologue to a fic about her and Cassidy raising hell and Jesse having to deal with now having a boyfriend _and_ a girlfriend who are vampires, but. That fic still might happen, but I wouldn’t count on it. 
> 
> Please point out any grammar/spelling errors and let me know if I need to warn for anything else.
> 
> Blanket permission for transformative works and collections. 
> 
> I'm on [tumblr.](http://murdersshewrote.tumblr.com)


End file.
